Chinese battery company CATL is planning to make an electric vehicle (EV) battery without lithium or other key metals.
The new design will have a limited range and will be less powerful than rival battery technologies.
CATL said it would develop a sodium ion battery that contains no nickel, lithium or cobalt.
Mining companies say large utility services could be one prominent use for CATL’s new type of battery, but that lithium is the only metal that can fuel widespread EV adoption.
The mining industry remains confident, because of the rapid rise of the battery to power not only transportation, but other parts of the global economy, which industry analysts expect to require a massive expansion of mining.
The number of global EVs is expected to jump more than 14 times to 145 million by 2030.
